Checking In
by shesnoops
Summary: Post-CRY - before leaving New Orleans, Nancy can't resist dropping by the Bolet mansion one more time to see how Henry is handling the resolution of the circumstances surrounding his uncle's death. Spoiler warning for endgame.


She shouldn't really be here. Henry probably had enough to deal with after all her discoveries on top of his uncle's death. But it was what Ned would have done, if he were here.

Nancy paused as she was about to press the button by the door, startled by her own excuses. Of course she wasn't doing this for Ned. She'd come originally for Ned, sure, but after that, the mystery had had her hooked. Her insatiable curiosity had once again reeled her in to investigate the intrigue of someone else's situation, someone else's past, someone else's home.

And now that same curiosity had caught her again – this time wrapped up in a person.

Never had Nancy felt such an intense need to know more about someone. A place, yes, a thing, yes, a story, a mystery, of course. But this time, she had to admit. Henry Bolet had caught her attention and she had to know – how had his story resolved itself?

She rang the doorbell, straightening up and readying herself for the surprise he was sure to exhibit upon finding her on his doorstep, after seeing her off mere days ago. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Henry had been so reclusive following the closing of the case that no one had seen or heard from him, and it had been up to Dr. Buford to thank Nancy for her work and let her know about all the details of the wrap-up. But after that, everyone had gone their separate ways, leaving Henry alone in the Bolet mansion until someone came by to collect Renee's things.

Nancy stared at the door as several minutes passed by. Increasingly, she was getting the itch to just open that door and let herself in. Bruno had always left it unlocked, like any New Orleans gentleman would, according to Renee. Maybe Henry had decided to follow the tradition? She leaned over, drumming her fingers against the door pane as she strained to remember whether she'd opened the door herself on her way in the first time, or if it had been ajar.

Shaking her head, Nancy stepped back. She was not one to forget the minor details. Her observant manners were just a part of the sleuthing skills she'd been born with. But for some reason, everything about this situation seemed touchy, too touchy to handle with her normal insensitivity. She couldn't just go barging into Henry's house uninvited. What if he was busy, or asleep, or just didn't want to be bothered? Or what if he wasn't home at all, and arrived as she was wandering around the house for no apparent reason? Boy, would that be awkward.

Nancy blinked and froze, again startled by her uncommon confusion and nervousness about the situation. _Ordinarily, you wouldn't think twice about looking through someone's personal belongings or disregarding tact when dealing with a situation._ _Why is this different?_

_Because it's not for the purpose of an investigation, _she realized. _This is a personal matter, whether I like it or not, and I'm going to have to play by normal social rules._

Blowing the air out cautiously through her lips, she pressed the doorbell a second time. Chimes echoed through the house, and she couldn't help but be reminded of the grandfather clock standing in the foyer that had dispensed three glass eyes to her during the course of the time she'd spent here.

The door clicked and Nancy jumped. When she looked up he was just standing there, looking at her. "Yes?"

His tone was the same as always, a little cold, a little sarcastic, but the look of surprise on his face did not seem unpleasant. She understood that expression, the shifty studying of his eyes behind that dark eyeliner. It was not shock, not annoyance, but curiosity.

Nancy couldn't help grinning. "Sorry, I know it might be kind of a surprise for me to show up like this so soon after I'd left, but Bess and I are heading back to River Heights tomorrow and… I thought you'd like to have this back." She held up a shiny keychain with one of Bruno's glass eyes dangling from the end.

Henry's eyes widened ever so slightly. "Oh, you… you had it reattached. Thanks." He paused, then offered his hand palm up.

"Nooo problem," Nancy answered, and gave him the keychain. "I guess now you know why I needed it. That guy you sold that box of stuff from the house to, Lamont? I had him fix it for me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, his shop was right across the street from our hotel!" She paused, watched him nod. "Crazy coincidence, right? But I guess no more crazy than it is that I always seem to run into mysteries no matter where I go." Another pause.

Henry studied the keychain in his open palm. "I… really, I'm sorry I went missing after you caught Renee and everything…" he waved a hand in her direction. "I really appreciate you finding out what my uncle really wanted."

"Oh, I enjoyed it," Nancy said. "I'm an amateur detective, remember? Ask Ned any time and he'll tell you, mysteries just sort of seem to follow me around."

"Right." Henry swallowed and pocketed the glass eye. "Well, uh, both you and Ned are welcome back any time. I… hope you enjoyed the rest of your vacation."

"Thanks. New Orleans is pretty great." She struggled for something that would keep the conversation from closing there, but nothing presented itself, and she found herself looking past him into the house. "In fact," she said absentmindedly, "it was so great, I wish I could stay a little longer…"

Before she could think of something else to say, he was doing it for her. "Actually… I kind of have something you might want to hear about. You know, since you found out about me… selling those items. And I promised never to do it again?"

"You _did_ keep your promise, didn't you Henry?" Nancy said playfully.

The slightest smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. "Yeah. I mean, well - why don't you come inside." He stepped backwards into the house, swinging the door in to let her pass through.

Nancy's adrenaline spiked as she stepped into the Bolet mansion for the second time and all its smells swept over her. "You know, the last time I came in here I got mugged," she reminded him. "You aren't going use knockout gas on me or anything, are you?"

Henry grimaced as he shut the door. "Yeah, I can't believe Buford did that. The man wouldn't quit apologizing to me after everyone else left, and I told him it was fine, but I honestly hope I never have to see him again." He paused. "It's bad enough he was Uncle Bruno's best friend. I don't really want anything else to do with him."

"Oh?" Nancy watched him closely. "I was hoping you felt better about your uncle after, you know, you found out he left you that skull. You know, even if it wasn't -."

"No, no," Henry said quickly, backing towards the study and putting a hand on the doorknob. "Things have been better in that – area. It's just, Buford doesn't get it. To him, Bruno Bolet was one person, and to me he's another. Someone I don't totally understand yet, but I'm trying. Come on."

He went into the study and Nancy followed, springing lightly on her tiptoes in anticipation. The study, like the rest of the house, had brightened considerably since her stay, but an atmosphere of gloom still hung over it. Henry went to the corner desk and sank into his usual chair, visibly relaxing at the familiarity of the position. Nancy paused to look at some of the books above the filing cabinet, not sure what else to do.

Henry cleared his throat, scratching lightly at the skin above his tattooed wrist. "Actually, I don't have anything to show you, exactly. I just thought you might want to see the house during daylight hours, and I wanted to say…"

Nancy looked at him. "Yeah?"

He opened his mouth to respond, just as a beep cut through the air. _Shoot,_ Nancy thought, pulled out her cell phone and said, "Hang on a second, I'm sorry." She would have just ignored it, except Bess's phone number lit up the screen. With a sigh, Nancy turned her back to Henry and hit the answer button. "Hello?" she said cautiously into the receiver.

"Nancy?" Bess's voice came through. "Where _are_ you? I've got to check out of the hotel now, and you haven't loaded your stuff into the car yet!"

"Oh!" Nancy said. "I'm so sorry Bess, I had to… drop something off. I'll be there soon, okay? Or better yet, why don't you just check out without me! You wouldn't mind loading my things up, would you?"

"Nancy? Are you feeling all right?"

Suspicious. Of course. Nancy sighed. She should have known she wouldn't be able to fool her best friend of plus ten years. "Yeah, everything's great. It's just, something came up."

"Nancy," repeated Bess, "Nancy, Nancy, Nancy. If I find out this is another mystery I am going to call George and we're going to just take off by ourselves to… to Italy or somewhere. Why do you always have to go off without me!"

Nancy laughed. "I thought you didn't like going on adventures!"

"Well, I don't, but I like being by myself even less. I got so bored while you were trying to figure out all that creepy skull stuff! So _is_ it another mystery? I wouldn't be surprised, you know. I would put nothing past your luck. Nothing at all."

"Not exactly," Nancy said. "Listen, I'm right in the middle of something, I've got to go. I'll call you as soon as I'm done." She hung up and couldn't help breathing a tiny sigh of relief.

When she turned back around, Henry was staring at her. "Hey," he said uncertainly, arms crossed, "if you need to go, then go."

"Oh, no," Nancy rushed, "Please get back to what you were telling me, I'm very interested to hear all about it."

And for once, she realized, she really was.

He gave her a strange look. "Uh, all right. Well, you know that I had to – I mean, that I sold all that stuff so I could buy something for Summer, my girlfriend."

"Yes," Nancy said. "Of course I remember. But Henry, I just want you to know that I think -."

"Hold on a second," he said. "Let me finish."

"Sorry." She grinned sheepishly.

Henry Bolet pulled in a breath and looked off behind her as if he was about to say something very momentous. "Thing is, after you found out about that weird crystal skull thing, I realized that _I _had never realized how much he actually… cared about me. I mean," he paused and waved a hand, "my uncle."

"Yeah?"

"Uh, yeah." He paused. "And thing is, I really… I get it now. I mean, I kind of do. How sometimes there are people you really need, but you can't see how much you need them, and how much they need you, because you're too busy pointing out all their flaws and trying to please the people you _think_ you need." His brow wrinkled and he shook his head, then looked up at Nancy. "Did that make any sense?"

"If you're trying to say that you realized Bruno really cared about you and Summer was just using you, and you would have been better off just focusing on the people that did care about you instead of trying to find someone else to fill their places, I think that's right. But I don't think you can blame yourself for that. Sometimes it's hard to tell how people feel."

Again, Henry gave Nancy that strange look. "Yeah," he said. "Thanks, I think."

"You bet." Nancy smiled. "So, what happened?"

A haunting smile hung in his expression for a moment, then he looked up and said. "I broke up with her. I don't need her anymore. She was mad, yeah, but… I guess I'm kind of used to people being upset with me."

"You're thinking of Renee, aren't you?"

Henry shrugged. "She just sort of seemed to resent my existence. I'm glad she's gone."

"And I'm sure that has nothing at all to do with all that creepy hoodoo stuff," Nancy teased.

"Nothing… at… all." Henry leaned back in the chair so he could grin at the ceiling, tapping his bunched fingers against the arms of it. "And I'm really glad things turned out the way they did. I mean, I'm all alone, but I kind of like it that way. At least," he said softly, "for now. I won't move on until I'm ready."

Nancy smiled. "That sounds like a good plan. And until you're ready?"

He shrugged. "I'm going to spend some time enjoying my work, cleaning up Uncle Bruno's estate, and trying to find out more about him. And maybe learn how to take care of that garden. Who knows. It's kind of creepy and weird, but I might find something cool out there."

"That is, unless I've already found everything there is to find," Nancy shot him a challenging look, but he just smirked and shook his head. "I'm willing to bet Uncle Bruno still had a few tricks left up his sleeve. And I've got plenty of time to try and figure them all out now."

It was at that much more opportune moment that Nancy's phone chose to ring again. She glanced at it. "Ned," she said, smiling. "Probably wondering how soon I'm going to be home. I'm sorry, Henry, I've got to get going."

"Nah, it's cool." He took the glass eye out of his pocket and studied it as he said, "Thanks again, Nancy Drew. I think it's probably not to far off to say you changed my life."


End file.
